Recommendation 29

We found that our witnesses did not readily acknowledge the poor state of affairs of current procurement. The Chief Executive of Defence Equipment and Support told us that, while he did not pretend his programmes were perfect, there has been significant improvements in controlling their costs, making efficiencies and delivering to time.60 This is at odds with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s assessment of the Department’s performance, where, in its latest report, it rated the majority of large defence equipment projects as either red or amber.61